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The National Alliance was reorganized from an earlier group called the National Youth Alliance (NYA), which in turn was formed out of the remains of the youth wing of Governor George Wallace's 1968 presidential campaign. The NYA broke into factions as a result of infighting, and William Luther Pierce, a former physics associate-professor and author of the white supremacist novels The Turner Diaries and Hunter, gained control of the largest remnant and relaunched it as the National Alliance in 1974.[8] Following Pierce's death from cancer in 2002, the Alliance's board of directors appointed Erich Gliebe to succeed him as chairman of the organization.[9] A series of power struggles began almost immediately, with high-ranking members either resigning or being fired.

In April 2005, prominent Alliance member Kevin Alfred Strom, then editor of National Vanguard magazine, issued a declaration calling for Gliebe to step down;[10] the Alliance's executive committee and most of its unit coordinators supported the action. Gliebe refused, claiming that the Alliance operated under the "Leadership Principle" and stating that he would not yield to any coup. Strom formed a new group called National Vanguard, which dissolved when Strom was indicted for possession of child pornography and attempted child sexual abuse in January 2007.[11] Strom pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography in exchange for the other charges to be dropped. He was sentenced to 23 months in prison in April 2008.[12]

Shortly after the attempted coup by Strom, Gliebe resigned as chairman of the Alliance and briefly appointed Shaun Walker as his successor. However, following Walker's arrest in June 2006, Gliebe again assumed leadership of the organization.[13][14] By that year, paid membership for the Alliance had declined to fewer than 800 and the paid staff was down to only ten people.[15] By 2012, the Alliance reportedly consisted of fewer than 100 members, with no paid staff other than Gliebe.[16][17] The following year, it was revealed that the Alliance's property in Mill Point, West Virginia had been put up for sale. The end of the National Alliance as a "membership organization" was confirmed by Gliebe in September 2013.[18] In June 2016, it was reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that Thomas Mair, later to be convicted of murdering the British Labour Party politician Jo Cox, was connected to the National Alliance.[19]

Before the death of Pierce, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Federal Bureau of Investigation called the National Alliance the best-financed and best-organized white nationalist organization of its kind in the United States. Membership in 2002 was estimated at 2,500 with an annual income of $1 million.[6]

In 2004, Harry Robert McCorkill of New Brunswick, Canada, attempted to will his entire estate (valued at almost $250,000) to the National Alliance upon his death. However, in 2014, the Court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick invalidated the will on the grounds that the National Alliance was a criminal organization made for the purpose of spreading hate speech and inciting violence against non-whites.[20]

In the past, the organization ran a white power record label called Resistance Records, and its radio program, American Dissident Voices, was once heard on shortwave, AM and FM stations, and streaming audio on the Internet. At one point in the mid-1990s there were 22 radio stations, AM and FM, which carried the program. The original host was Kevin Alfred Strom, who continued until early 1997 when Pierce took it over full-time. Upon the death of Pierce in July 2002 it again was hosted until April 16, 2005 by Strom. Walker then became the voice for American Dissident Voices until his arrest in June 2006. At that time, Gliebe became the voice of the radio program. Broadcasts continued until 2012, when the frequency became erratic. At some time in 2013, Gliebe ceased broadcasting altogether, but programming was resumed by Kevin Alfred Strom in December of that year.